The Blackstone Group LP (BX) in 2007 bought Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. (HLT), the lodging chain. Now it plans to raise as much as $2.4 billion in its U. S. initial public offering, the highest ever for a hotel company.

At the midpoint of the IPO range, the company will have a stock-market value of about $19.2 billion, making it larger than Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. (HOT), Marriott International Inc. (MAR), and Hyatt Hotels Corp. (H) According to a regulatory filing today, the McLean, Virginia-based hotel operator and existing shareholders plans to sell 112.8 million shares for $18 to $21 each.

Though New York-based Blackstone isn’t selling any of its stocks, but Hilton, the world’s largest hotel company with more than 4,000 properties, plans to sell 64.1 million of the total, using its proceeds to help repay $1.25 billion of debt.

Based on data compiled by Bloomberg, Hilton’s IPO could raise as much as $2.7 billion by selling extra shares to meet demand. That would make it the second-largest U. S. IPO this year only after Plains GP Holdings LP, which is an affiliate of an oil and gas pipeline company. It would outshine Hyatt’s $1.09 billion sale in November 2009 as the biggest lodging IPO.